Fluid feed conduit for processing apparatus

ABSTRACT

A fluid distributing and collecting conduit for transferring liquid under pressure to and from materials confined within a processing vessel comprises a thin walled, helically convoluted rigid tube having a plurality of spatially disposed orifices located in the bottom of the external helical groove. A fine mesh sleeve is tightly fitted over the tube to prevent said material from entering said tube.

111 3,722,539 1 Mar. 27, 1973 United States Patent Schmidt, Jr.

204 29 n 87m n33 I1 5 00 8 3 2 1 u Levitt ml e .mfly "be ofl WRR 8060024467 99999 11111 Ill/l 7 372 60974 34 06 666 5 78996 12233 HenrySchmidt, Jr., Hinsdale, Ill.

Industrial Filter & Pump Mfg. Co., Cicero, Ill.

Primary Examiner-William E. Wayner [22] Filed: Dec. 4, 1970AttorneyFidler, Bradley, Patnaude & Lazo [21] Appl. No.: 95,297

[ ABSTRACT A fluid distributing and collecting conduit for transferringliquid under pressure to and from materials confined within a processingvessel comprises a thin meld 588mm walled, helically convoluted rigidtube having a plu- [58] 55/410,419; 261/121 R, 122; 138/178, 173,140 X,153; 239/145 V, 542;

rality of spatially disposed orifices located in the bot- 285/DIG. 4

tom of the external helical groove. A fine mesh sleeve is tightly fittedover the tube to prevent said material from entering said tube.

[56] References Cited 8 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures UNITED STATES PATENTSPATENTEDHARZYIQH ,722,539

INVENTOR Aiigs HENRY SCHM|DT,JR.

FLUID FEED CONDUIT FOR PROCESSING AIPARATUS This invention relates to afluid feed conduit for use in processing vessels, and it moreparticularly relates to a conduit adapted to be mounted within a processvessel for transferring liquids under pressure into and out of thevessel.

Many different types of process vessels have been employed forprocessing different materials, such, for example, as powdered orgranulated resinous materials, carbon, and like materials. According toone successful technique, a process vessel includes feed and collectorconduits mounted within the process vessel for distributing processingliquid under pressure to a granular material confined within the vesselduring one part of a process and for conveying liquid from the vesselduring another part of the process. Each of the fluid feed conduitscomprises a perforated pipe, a spacer grid and a fine mesh sleeve formedof a wire screen and surrounding the grid for preventing the granularmaterial from entering the holes in the pipe during the liquidcollection cycle and for evenly distributing the liquid flowing to thematerial to be processed within the vessel during the liquid feed cycle.Another type feed conduit is disclosed in U. S. Pat. No. 3,391,707.

The distribution and collection conduits of the prior art have severaldisadvantages. For example, blinding of portions of the conduit is notuncommon and occurs when one or more of the orifices become plugged.Also, they are heavy and expensive to manufacture and transport. Inaddition, when employing the abovedescribed type of conduit constructionin some applications, after repeated use the sleeve would eventuallytear and repair or replacement would be necessary. In this regard, inhigh pressure systems and where heavy resinous materials are used, thefine-mesh sleeve eventually breaks due to the weight of the resin anddue to the back pressure exerted on the sleeve during reverse flow offluid from the pipe. The sleeve is particularly susceptible to breakagewhere the sleeve extends over a hole in the pipe. Also, even slightirregularities in the surface of the screen forming the sleeve causewearing and eventual tearing of the sleeve. In this regard, the screenmesh wires of the fine-mesh sleeve extending circumferentially aroundthe pipe are exposed to an outwardly directed pressure during one cycleof operation of the processing vessel and are exposed to an inwardlydirected pressure when the process vessel is operated during a reversecycle of operation. Such pressure reversals tend to bend and thuseventually break the screen.

Thus, the principal object of the present invention is to provide a newand improved fluid feed conduit for processing apparatus.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improvedfluid feeding conduit which consists of a perforated feed pipe and afine-mesh sleeve.

Briefly, the above and further objects may be realized in accordancewith the present invention by providing a feed conduit which includes ahelically convoluted, rigid tube having an external helical groove inwhich a series of orifices are disposed at precisely determinedpositions within the groove and a fine-mesh sleeve surrounding the pipe.Where the sleeve is formed of wires, the wires extend at an angle of 45relative to the longitudinal axis of the pipe so that when the sleeve isplaced over the pipe and an external pressure is applied thereto thewires bend to conform to the shape of the tube, whereby during theoperation of the processing vessel the pressure reversals and the weightof the resinous material do not cause excessive wearing and tearing ofthe sleeve. If a wire-screen sleeve were disposed over a corrugated tubein the conventional manner, i.e., with one set of wires extendinglongitudinally and the other extending circumferentially, thecircumferential wires would be subject to a compressive force and wouldnot hold in place during the pressure reversals encountered during useof the conduit.

These and further objects of the present invention will be understoodmore fully and completely from the following detailed description whenconsidered with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary front elevational view of a processing vesselwhich has a portion thereof broken away to expose a fluid feed conduitincorporating principles of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary view, partially in cross section, ofthe fluid feed conduit of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-sectional view of the conduit ofFIG. 2.

Referring now to the drawings and more particularly to FIG. 1 thereof,there is shown a processing system 10 which incorporates the principlesof the present invention. Since there are many other different types ofprocessing systems which may incorporate the principles of the presentinvention, the processing system disclosed herein is only included byway of example, The system 10 includes a process vessel 12, a materialfeed pipe 14 communicating with the interior of the vessel 12 at thelowermost area of its dish-shaped bottom wall, and an annular manifold16 surrounding the pipe 14 for conveying processing fluid under pressureto and from the vessel 12 via a connecting pipe 18, which extends intothe interior of the vessel 12 and is connected in fluid communicationwith a perforated fluid feed conduit 20 extending along and in closeproximity with the bottom wall of the vessel 12. It will be understoodthat a plurality of such pipes 18 and conduits 20 will normally beprovided in the vessel 12 in most installations. An outlet 23 isconnected in fluid communication with the vessel 12 near its top forfeeding liquids to the material in the vessel 12 when the conduit 20serves as an underdrain, and for removing liquids from the vessel 12when the conduit 20 conveys fluid into the vessel 12. The vessel 12 canbe opened to the atmosphere, or it can be provided with a cover (notshown) to seal the vessel chamber so that the vessel 12 can be operatedat pressures exceeding atmospheric pressure. A two-way pump (not shown)pumps the processing fluid under pressure to and from the manifold 16via a pipe 25. Normally a plurality of connector pipes and fluid feedconduits are connected in fluid communication to the manifold 16, butfor sake of clarity, only one connector pipe and fluid feed conduit areshown in the drawing. In operation, the processing system 10 canfunction in different manners since as an ion exchange system forpurifying water by passing it through powered or granulated resinous ionexchange materials, or as a regenerating system for the resinous ionexchange material. The apparatus of the present invention will bedescribed in connection with the system being used as a regeneratingsystem, but since the invention can also be used in many other types ofsystems, it should be understood that the invention should not belimited to a regenerating system.

When the system 10 is used to regenerate resinous material, the spentresinous material is transferred from an ion exchange system (not shown)to the sealed vessel 12 via the material feed pipe 14. The first step inthe regeneration operation is the backwash operation. In this regard, inorder to quickly break apart these sticky resinous materials to permitregenerating fluid to flow through the material, a fluid such as waterunder high pressure is pumped to the material in the vessel 12 via thepipe 25, the manifold 16, the connector pipes, such as the pipe 18, andthe feed conduits, such as the feed conduit 20. The water flows upwardlythrough the material and out of the vessel 12 via the line 23.Thereafter, the regenerating fluid under pressure enters the vessel 12via the line 23 which opens therein above the resinous material. Theregenerating fluid flows down through the resinous material, causing itto be regenerated, and out of the vessel 12 via the conduits 20, theconnector pipes, the manifold 16 and the pipe 25. Further details of thesystem 10 are disclosed in the above-mentioned U. S. Pat. No. 3,391,707.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the fluid feed conduit 20 comprises ahelically convoluted, rigid tube 27 having a series of longitudinallyaligned holes or orifices 29 therein extending in a line parallel to thelongitudinal axis of the tube 27 at precisely determined positions inthe external groove 37 to ensure uniform distribution of liquids. Thefree end of the tube 27 is closed by a plug member 31, and a fine-meshsleeve 33 surrounds the tube 27 with its ends fixed to the tube 27 by apair of bands 35. Inasmuch as the groove 37 is continuous, should any ofthe orifices 29 become blocked, liquid may flow from the area of theblocked orifices to other orifices which remain open. Hence, better zonepickup is maintained irrespective of some orifice blinding.

A helical external ridge 39 extends along the tube 27 for substantiallythe entire length thereof and forms the external groove 37. An internalhelical groove 42 is also defined by the ridge 39, and mates with thethreads 44 on the plug member 31 so that the plug member 31 can bethreaded into the end of the pipe and thus secured in place. The sleeve33 partially conforms to and engages the external ridge 39 on the tube27, and has an internal helical groove 46 which receives the ridge 39 tofix the sleeve 33 to the tube 27. An internal helical ridge 48 extendspartially into the external groove 37 in the tube 27 and holds thesleeve 33 against the tube 27 to prevent longitudinal relative movementtherebetween. It may be seen, however, that the internal ridge 48 doesnot fill the groove 37 which thus provides a passageway to permit fluidsto flow in the groove 37 between the tube 27 and the sleeve 33.

The sleeve 33 is preferably composed of a wire-mesh material which hasits mesh wires extending at a 45 angle relative to the longitudinal axisof the tube 27 as shown in FIG. 2. The feed conduit 20 of the presentinvention can be assembled by placing the sleeve over the tube 27 andthen compressing the sleeve to form the internal ridge 48 so as to fixthe sleeve 33 to the tube 27. The step of forming the sleeve onto thetube 27 is best accomplished automatically after the conduit isinstalled in a pressurized vessel. If desired, however, the sleeve canbe compressed against the tube 27 during the initial manufacturingprocess. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the use ofa woven mesh wherein the filaments extend in a helical direction alongthe tube is also advantageous where the tube is annularly convolutedrather than helically convoluted. In FIG. 3, the sleeve 33 is shown tobe oversized for illustration purposes, and while the conventionalpatent drafting symbol for screening is used for the sleeve 33 toindicate that the sleeve 33 is composed of screening, it should now beunderstood that the sleeve 33 incorporates a novel design, in that,among other things, the mesh wires of the sleeve 33 extend in a helicaldirection at a 45 angle relative to the longitudinal axis of the sleeve33.

In order to assemble the filter element 20, the sleeve 33 is firstformed by cutting a piece of wire mesh screen material at a 45 bias, andthen forming the piece into a tubular sleeve by welding it along a seam50. The tubular sleeve is slipped over the tube 27, and a pair of bands,such as the band 35, are used to secure the ends of the tubular sleeveto the tube 27 and to the plug member 31. If it is desired to preformthe sleeve 33 prior to installation in a processing vessel, the unit maythen be mounted in a turning machine, such as a lathe, and a suitabletool (not shown) inserted around the unit. The tube 27 is then turnedabout its longitudinal axis to cause the tool to move along the element20 and thus to bend a helical portion of the sleeve into the externalgroove 37, whereby the sleeve is partially stretched and conformed inplace on the tube 27. Due to the orientation of the mesh wires, all ofthe wires are stretched and the sleeve 33 retains its tightenedcondition on the tube 27. Moreover, the assembled conduit 20 can beslightly bent to conform to the shape of the bottom wall of the vessel12 without loosening the sleeve 33.

While the present invention has been described in connection with aparticular embodiment thereof, it will be understood that many changesand modifications of this invention may be made by those skilled in theart without departing from the true spirit and scope thereof.Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to cover all such changesand modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of thepresent invention.

What is claimed is: 1. For use in processing apparatus of the type whichincludes a processing tank for containing materials to be processed andat least one conduit disposed within the interior of said tank,

said conduit including a closedend, helically convoluted tube having atleast one aperture therein,

said tube having an external helical groove, said aperture beingdisposed at the innermost portion of said groove; and

a metal mesh sleeve surrounding said tube and including an internal,helical ridge portion extending partially within said groove to fix saidsleeve to said tube so that said tube and said sleeve form an integralunit.

2. The invention according to claim 1, wherein said external groove insaid tube extends substantially the length of said tube.

3. The invention according to claim 2, wherein said said tube is thinwalled and includes an internal helimesh sleeve is composed of a wovenmaterial, said calgroove,and

material being composed of elongated interwoven members extending at anangle of substantially 45 degrees relative to the longitudinal axis ofsaid tube. 5

4. The invention according to claim 1, further including a plug memberhaving a threaded portion, said threaded portion being complementallyshaped relative to Sa.id groove f Said tube and i threaded said meshconsists of two sets of said filaments, portion being threaded into oneend of said tube to 10 the filaments in one of Said Sets beingperpendicular form said closed end.

to the filaments in the other of said sets. 5. The invention accordingto claim 1 wherein 1s provided: 8. The invention according to claim 3wherein said a plurality of apertures in said tube opening in theInterwoven members are metalhc' bottom portions of said groove,

said mesh sleeve is formed by interwoven filaments each extending in ahelical direction along said tube. 6. The invention according to claim 5wherein said filaments are metallic.

7. The invention according to claim 5 wherein:

1. For use in processing apparatus of the type which includes aprocessing tank for containing materials to be processed and at leastone conduit disposed within the interior of said tank, said conduitincluding a closed-end, helically convoluted tube having at least oneaperture therein, said tube having an external helical groove, saidaperture being disposed at the innermost portion of said groove; and ametal mesh sleeve surrounding said tube and including an internal,helical ridge portion extending partially within said groove to fix saidsleeve to said tube so that said tube and said sleeve form an integralunit.
 2. The invention according to claim 1, wherein said externalgroove in said tube extends substantially the length of said tube. 3.The invention according to claim 2, wherein said mesh sleeve is composedof a woven material, said material being composed of elongatedinterwoven members extending at an angle of substantially 45 degreesrelative to the longitudinal axis of said tube.
 4. The inventionaccording to claim 1, further including a plug member having a threadedportion, said threaded portion being complementally shaped relative tosaid internal groove of said tube and said threaded portion beingthreaded into one end of said tube to form said closed end.
 5. Theinvention according to claim 1 wherein is provided: a plurality ofapertures in said tube opening in the bottom portions of said groove,said tube is thin walled and includes an internal helical groove, andsaid mesh sleeve is formed by interwoven filaments each extending in ahelical direction along said tube.
 6. The invention according to claim 5wherein said filaments are metallic.
 7. The invention according to claim5 wherein: said mesh consists of two sets of said filaments, thefilaments in one of said sets being perpendicular to the filaments inthe other of said sets.
 8. The invention according to claim 3 whereinsaid interwoven members are metallic.